Doctors found that a bone marrow transplant has rid an HIV-positive patient of the virus that causes the deadly AIDS disease. While hailing the results, they cautioned that it is too early to say he has been cured.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G. Bally
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Researchers have announced that a man infected with the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, is in sustained remission following a bone marrow transplant from an HIV-resistant donor. This makes the man, known as the "London patient," the second person ever to have been cleared of the fatal virus that affects some 37 million people worldwide.
The treatment and result was published in the international science journal Nature and is expected to be officially announced at a medical conference in Seattle on Tuesday.
The scientists used the same method that proved successful for an an HIV-positive patient in Berlin in 2007. In both cases, the transplant was intended to treat blood cancers.
"By achieving remission in a second patient using a similar approach, we have shown that the Berlin patient was not an anomaly," lead researcher Ravindra Gupta said.
Rare genetic mutation
Both HIV-positive patients with blood cancers received bone marrow stem cells from donors who had genetic mutations to the HIV receptor, known as CCR5, that made them resistant to the virus. Replacing the infected patients' cells with the mutated ones seems to keep HIV from coming back after the treatment.
The "London patient" was diagnosed with HIV in 2003 and has been on antiretroviral therapy (ARV) since 2012, which suppresses the virus but does not eliminate it. After being diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a deadly cancer, he received the bone marrow transplant in 2016. He then continued on ARV for 16 more months before stopping the treatment. He has shown no signs of the HIV virus for 19 months now.
'Functionally cured'
"There is no virus there that we can measure. We can't detect anything," Gupta said. However, he cautioned that, "It's too early to say he's cured," instead describing the patient as "functionally cured" and "in remission."
The researcher said this second instance of successfully clearing a patient of HIV would help narrow the range of treatment strategies, but he emphasized that bone marrow transplants, which are dangerous, painful and and expensive, would not be a viable option for HIV treatment.
Only 59 percent of people living with HIV worldwide receive ARV. Some one million individuals die annually from HIV-related causes, and AIDS has killed around 35 million since it began in the 1980s.
Many different approaches to tackling HIV/AIDS in Africa
Because knowledge is power, this year’s theme for World Aids Day on December 1st is "Know your status." Awareness makes the fight against AIDS more effective. But not every African president has led by example.
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Deadly denialism
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki (1999 - 2008) went down in history as the foremost African denier of AIDS. Against all scientific evidence he maintained that HIV did not cause AIDS. He instructed his health officials to combat the disease with herbal remedies. Experts believe his denialism cost up to 300,000 lives. Some have called for Mbeki to be tried for crimes against humanity.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/G. Khan
A president as traditional healer
In 2007 former Gambian president Yahya Jammeh (1996 - 2017) forced AIDS patients to undergo a cure that he had personally developed. It turned out to be a concoction based on herbs; an unknown number of people died. Jammeh, who claimed that he had mystic powers, is the first African head of state to be tried for violating the rights of HIV-positive people.
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'Take a shower'
Another former South African head of state to make headlines for an unconventional take on AIDS was Jacob Zuma (2009 - 2018). After being charged with raping an HIV-positive woman in 2006, Zuma said he was not at risk of infection, despite not using a condom, because he had "taken a shower afterwards." In 2010 he disclosed the negative results of his AIDS test, to fight the stigma, he said.
Image: Reuters/N. Bothma
No condoms?
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni took his time before joining the fight against the epidemic. As late as 2004, during an international AIDS conference in Thailand, he downplayed the effectiveness of condoms, alleging, among other things, that they ran counter to some African sexual practices. "We don’t think we can become universally condomised," he said. His remarks were met with laughter.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/I. Langsdon
A tax to fund treatment
Some action taken by African heads of state to fight the scourge did not go down well at home. A tax introduced in 1999 by Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe (1987-2017) to help orphans and sufferers met with resistance. It is still in place today. In 2004 Mugabe admitted that his own family had been affected by AIDS. He said the disease was "one of the greatest challenges facing our nation."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/T. Mukwazhi
A shining example
Fear of economic repercussions affecting, for example, tourism, is one reason why African leaders have been reluctant to acknowledge the threat. But President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia (1964-1991) announced as early as 1987 that one of his sons had died of AIDS. In 2002 he was the first African leader to take an AIDS test. He still fights against AIDS today.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Mwape
Bid to make tests compulsory
The fight against AIDS by Kaunda’s successor Edgar Lungu met with some hitches when he tried to make AIDS-testing compulsory in Zambia. Lungu said in 2016 that the policy was non-negotiable. But a huge outcry in Zambia and abroad forced him to backpedal especially as the World Health Organization made clear that compulsion encourages the stigmatization of HIV-positive people.
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Championing an HIV-free Africa
After leaving office, Festus Mogae, former president of Botswana (1998-2008), launched Champions for an AIDS-Free Generation, which brings together a number of former African presidents and other influential personalities eager to help fight the scourge. They hope that their experience and influence will enable them to exert pressure on governments and partners to invest in AIDS prevention.
